Children's favorite festival should be the Spring Festival. They can play carefree in the lively atmosphere of the Spring Festival. Do you know the date of this year's Spring Festival? What are the traditional customs of the Spring Festival? Let's get to know.
The 2019 Spring Festival is February 5, 2019, the first day and Tuesday of the first lunar month.
Spring Festival
The Spring Festival refers to the traditional Chinese New Year in the circle of Chinese culture, commonly known as "the new year", which is traditionally named as the new year, the new year and the new year. However, it is also called the birthday, the celebration of the new year and the new year orally, which is the most solemn traditional festival of the Chinese nation.
During the Spring Festival, Chinese Han and some ethnic minorities will hold various celebrations. The main contents of these activities are ancestor worship, ancestor worship, eliminating the old, greeting the new, blessing the new and praying for a good year. The forms are rich and colorful, with rich national characteristics. Under the influence of Chinese culture, some countries and nations belonging to the Chinese character cultural circle also have the custom of celebrating the Spring Festival. On the day of Spring Festival, people come back home as much as possible to reunite with their relatives, to express their eagerness for the coming year and their good wishes for the new year's life.
Spring Festival is not only a festival, but also an important carrier for Chinese people to release their emotions and satisfy their psychological demands. It is also the annual carnival of the Chinese nation and the eternal spiritual pillar.
Spring Festival custom
Sweeping dust
According to Lu's spring and Autumn Annals, there was a custom of sweeping dust during the Spring Festival in China. According to the folk saying: because of the homophony of "Chen" and "Chen", sweeping the dust in the new spring has the meaning of "removing the old and distributing the new". The intention is to sweep out all the bad luck and misfortune. Every time the Spring Festival comes, every family should clean the environment, clean all kinds of utensils, remove the bedding and curtains, sweep the six Lu courtyard, dust the cobweb, and dredge the open channel and underground ditch.
There is a joyful atmosphere of sanitation and clean spring festival everywhere.
Staying up late on New Year
New year's Eve is one of the most important activities of the Year custom, which has a long history. The earliest records are in the local records of the Western Jin Dynasty: on the eve of new year's Eve, each party gives gifts, which are called 'giving to the old'; wine and food invite each other, which are called 'other years'; the elders and children gather together to drink, which is called' dividing the years'; everyone stays up all night, waiting for the dawn, which is called 'keeping the year'.
Since the Han Dynasty, the time of new and old year's alternation is usually midnight.
Pay New Year's call
New Year cards have been used in ancient China. As early as in the Song Dynasty, special New Year greeting cards, called "famous stabs" or "famous stickers", had been used between the families of royal and noble scholar officials and their families. It is cut into two inch wide and three inch long cards with its own name and address on them. A red paper bag is pasted on the door of each house, which is called 'door book'. The name of the owner is written on it to receive the famous stab (name sticker). Worshipers throw famous stabs (name stickers) in the door book, that is to say New Year's greetings, with the same meaning as modern greeting cards.
Post new year's scrolls
The custom of affixing spring couplets began about a thousand years ago in the post Shu period, which is evidenced by history. Spring couplets are also called door couplets, spring stickers, couplets, couplets, peaches and so on. They describe the background of the times in neat, dual, concise and exquisite words and express good wishes. They are unique literary forms in China. Every Spring Festival, no matter in the city or in the countryside, every family should select a red couplet and paste it on the door to increase the festive atmosphere for the festival. This custom began in the Song Dynasty and began to prevail in the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, the ideological and artistic quality of spring couplets had been greatly improved. Liang Zhangju's spring couplet monograph "Ganghua" discussed the origin of couplets and the characteristics of various works. There are many kinds of spring couplets. According to the places where they are used, they can be divided into door center, frame pair, cross drape, spring stripe, square, etc. 'door center' is pasted on the center of the upper end of the door panel, 'frame pair' is pasted on the left and right door frames, 'cross drape' is pasted on the crossbar of the door panel, 'spring strip' is pasted on the corresponding place according to different contents, 'Dou Jin' is also called 'door leaf', which is square diamond shape, and most of it is pasted in furniture and screen wall.
Gift money
In the old days, after sacrificing the ancestors and holding the ceremony to welcome the gods to the earth, the whole family had to say goodbye to the new year together. The younger generation had to kowtow to the elder to wish the elder longevity, great blessings and great prosperity. The elder generation had to give the younger generation red envelopes, that is, "lucky money", which means "lucky money".
In ancient times, new year's money was called "pressing money" and "pressing money", which first appeared in the Han Dynasty. Pressing money is not a currency circulating on the market, but a kind of appreciation object in the shape of coins. It has the meaning of avoiding evil and suppressing evil. Pressing money was originally made by weaving four square holes with red velvet rope to make money into 'Fangsheng' (one of the eight auspicious patterns) and sagging tassels. On some new year's money at that time, there were auspicious words such as "live for a long time", "go to the rice seedling to remove the murderer" and "live for a long time". On the back, there were auspicious patterns such as dragon and Phoenix, turtle and snake, and Pisces.
New year's money is a kind of custom in the Spring Festival and a kind of good wish. Although the currency has changed, the custom of the elders giving new year's money to the younger generation is still handed down in the Spring Festival. It sends the elder's good wishes for the growth of the children and the healthy growth of the children.